Windows 7 Letter from George

Just thought I would let you know that I have just upgraded from Vista 64 (SP2) to Windows 7 (64 bit) and the difference in performance of FSX is OUTSTANDING. Now I have got to admit that the previously installed version of Vista probably needed a clean install - but I decided to wait for windows 7 and have upgraded over the Vista as oppose to a clean install.

To give you an example of the improvement I have experienced, I took the helicopter mission in Aerosofts Manhatten X - which as you know is pretty dense scenery. Previously with Vista I was struggling, perhaps managing between 6 and 12 FPS and a juddering flight. Lo and behold - Windows 7 has given me over 20FPS in some of the densest part of downtown Manhatten - and it is so smooth.

As I said, I cannot say this is all down to Windows 7 - some of it could be due to me needing a new install of Vista - but hey its working and I am going back flying.

My computer spec is:-

Intel 2core Quad 2.83 GHz with 8 GB memory and ATI 4870 graphics card

Look forward to listening to this weeks podcast

George

Building a FSX PC Discussion

Danton and Eric share their new computer systems they are working on! Listen for full details!

E-Mails

Around the *BLEEEP* Event

Hi guys, was wonder if you guys could route by Singapore for the round-the-world flight. I'm currently holding office as the Events Director at the Singapore Virtual Area Control Centre on VATSIM (http://www.sinvacc.net), so I may be able to rustle up some controllers to provide ATC for you guys. Singapore is a country in South-East Asia and has two civilian airports, Singapore Changi Intl' (WSSS) and Singapore Seletar Airport (WSSL) with the former used mainly for the heavy irons and the latter for GA. The thing about Singapore is that the whole country is an island only 40km East to West and 20km North to South, so not only are the airports close to each other, but the airspace is very small!

You guys have been doing a great service to the FS community with the podcast so keep it up! Hope to hear from you soon! Cheers!

Where in the world game?

I was on line last night on FlightSim.com and came across a feature by Ron Blehm called

“Where In The World?” I don’t know if you guys are familiar with this feature. People send in photos of someplace in the world and everyone tries to figure out where this place is. I was thinking this might be something we could do here on FSBreak. During our flights we could take a few screenshots, send them in and we could all try to figure out where they were taken. Sounds like it would be fun, what do you think?

Other Viewpoint: LCD as a Monitor

I heard Danton was thinking about using an LCD TV as a monitor and wanted some feedback about it. I currently use a 32" Flat Screen LCD HDTV for my computer monitor hooked up to pretty decent system. It's has the latest ASUS P6T Deluxe Mobo with the Intel quad core I7 920 CPU, 6GB of Corsair Dominator Ram and a GForce GTX 285 1GB video card.

Honestly, flying never really came to life as much as it did when I started using the LCD TV as a computer monitor. I don't have all the fancy stuff Danton has but as a real world commercial/IFR pilot I can honestly tell you, for me, it really brings the realism in flight sim to life. I'm able to see all my gauges as well as the terrain without complication, the detail through VGA isn't that bad but I would recommend using either the HDMI or DVI hookup that most video cards allow for now a days.

For me DVI is like night and day compared to VGA so the graphics and detail is absolutely superb. I know I could never go back to using the smaller versions of the LCD monitors when it comes to flying. Like anything though, using an LCD HDTV as a monitor may not be for everyone but I can say that I have had nothing but positive results using mine. For me in this case, bigger is definitely better for the flight sim world.